Apparatus for removal of corns and horny skin



Sept. 26, 1967 E. WERNER 3,343,550

APPARATUS FOR REMOVAL OF CORNS AND HORNY SKIN Fued Feb. 8, 1965 17 Fig 3 73 20!! 77' ,9 r" W"? 4 4 10 ll I2 .5:

g: 4 2E I -26 y? Z 6' 2 Us X 4 4 a Z. J 4' 5 g x INVENTOR.

Q a/2v W 3Y ii United States Patent 3,343,550 APPARATUS FOR REMOVAL OF CORNS AND HORNY SKIN Erich Werner, Schlielfenstrasse 40, Wuppertal-Vohwinkel, Germany Filed Feb. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 431,014 1 Claim. (Cl. 13275.8)

The present invention relates to an apparatus for removal of corns and horny skin, in general, and to such apparatus, which is used in connection with a hand piece, to be coupled with a driving shaft, which has a longitudinal slot within the range of a front flattened portion, and in which hand piece a head piece, formed as a multiedged cutting head, rotates, in particular.

Devices for the removal of corns and of horny skin are known, in which a rotating cutting head is formed like a milling cutter. A removal of the skin takes place in small chips or cuttings of the character of file chips. Considering the tough structure of the skin, in particular of the horny skin, very high numbers of revolutions are required.

In addition the operation is not satisfactory, because the smoothness of the skin leaves something to desire after the removal of the skin. In order to bring about an adjustment to the removal of the chips determined by the thickness thereof, it has been proposed before in these devices to provide different flattenings, 'which under circumstances bring about a different penetration depth. Aside from the disadvantageous structure, danger sources arise due to the always freely disposed cutter cutting areas.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for removal of corns and horny skin, which is mechanically driven and handy in its structure, which is designed such that due to a special arrangement of the cutting edges, an equalized, easy and painfree working is made possible, whereby the removal of the skin is to be performed in the sense of a planing effect.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for removal of corns and horny skin, wherein a hand piece carries a head piece formed at one of its ends as a multiedged cutting head, which head piece rotates within the range of a longitudinal slot, and is operatively connected with a first hand piece shaft and which slot is disposed in a flattened portion at the front end of the hand piece and which cutting head is designed such that the radial distance of the cutting edges from the rotary axis of the cutting head in rotary direction of the cutting head increases always for the same amount, whereby at the opposite end of the hand piece an easily flexible shaft member is arranged, which carries at its free end a coupling head mounting a second shaft of the hand piece.

Due to such structure, an easily operable tool for removal of corns and of horny skin is provided. It has been found that by such arrangement a hacking operation of the device is completely avoided; rather a completely smooth skin face is created. No very fine chips which flow around and which set in the apparatus, occur. The size of the structure is small and is easily carried in the hand of the operator. It is possible to obtain a simple painfree cut. In spite of the created flattening due to forced oscillations in view of the different cutting edge distances, a sufliciently quiet rotation takes place. The different radial distances of the cutting edges cause also that the cutting edges penetrating successively into the skin during each rotation penetrate at different depth. Due to this effect, a painfree removal of horny skin pieces which reach deep into the skin is made possible. On the "ice other hand, it has been found that nevertheless each individual cutting edge provides still a removing contribution. Also, a great independence from the number of revolutions is present, aside from this fact, smaller motors can be applied. The arrangement of the cutting head on one end of the hand piece, which continues at the other end into an easily flexible shaft, makes possible a good manipulation in greatest independency from the drive shaft connected with a second shaft of the hand piece mounted on the coupling head.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus, partly in section, designed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an axial section of the apparatus disclosing a different embodiment of the coupling head;

FIG. 3 is an elevation, partly in section, of the cutting head at an enlarged scale; and

FIG. 4 is a section along the lines 4-4 of FIG. 3.

Referring now to the drawing, the apparatus designed in accordance with the present invention comprises a hand piece 1 having a tubular center portion 2, which has secured thereto a front member 3 and an easily flexible shaft 4 secured to the opposite end of the center 'portion 2. The flexible shaft 4 carries at its free end a coupling head 5 and 5, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. The coupling head 5 and 5', respectively, serves the purpose of connecting a drive shaft. A hand piece shaft 6 consisting of a first shaft and of a second shaft 6 is mounted in the coupling head 5 and 5, respectively, a flexible shaft 4' is mounted in flexible shaft 4 and connects hand piece shafts 6 and 6'. The first shaft is additionally supported in ball bearings 7 and 8 in the tubular center portion 2. Supporting rings 9, 10, 11 and 12 are disposed on both sides of the ball bearings 7 and 8, which supporting rings prevent an axial displacement of the shaft 6. The uppermost supporting ring 9 forms simultaneously an abutment for the cutting head 13. It has an inner thread 14 for the purpose of removal thereof. A cross bore 15 serves the purpose of receiving a safety cross bolt 16.

The front portion 3 of the hand piece 1 has a flattened part 17 in which a longitudinal slot 18 is provided. The flattened part 17 runs in a continuous curve 17' along the outer face of the front portion 3. The longitudinal slot 18 has sharp side edges 18 and 18".

The cutting head 13 rotates within the range of the longitudinal slot 18 in the front member 3. The cutting head is formed conically and has three ribs 19, 20 and 21 rounded up on their outside. These ribs have in the same cross-sectional plane a different radial distance from the rotating axis xx of the cutting head 13. The radial distance r of the cutting edge 19 of the ribs 19 is larger than the radial distance r of the cutting edge 20* of the rib 20 from the rotating axis xx. The radial distance r of the cutting edge 20' of the rib 20 is larger than the radial distance r of the cutting edge 21' of the rib 21 from the rotating axis x-x. The increase of the radial distance r relative to the radial distance r and the increase of the radial distance r relative to the radial distance r is of the same amount.

The rotating direction of the cutting head is indicated by the arrow y (FIG. 4).

The cutting edges 19', 20' and 21' of the corresponding ribs 19, 2t} and 21, respectively, rise at their ends opposite to the hand piece shaft 6 relative to their front free ends 19", 20" and 21", respectively, seen in direction of rotation y, so that at first the end of the cutting edge 19' directed towards the first hand piece shaft 6 emerges on the longitudinal edge 18 of the slot 18 and disappears again behind the longitudinal edge 18", respectively. By this arrangement, a proper drawing cut is assured.

The front member 3 of the hand piece 1 is formed conically substantially corresponding to the cone of the cutting head 13.

The thread 14 in the neck of the cutting head 13 runs opposite to the direction of rotation y of the head piece 13.

The outside rounding of the ribs 19, 20 and 21 runs on a short section 22 following the cutting edges 19, 20' and 21, respectively, concentrically to the rotating axis x-x of the cutting head 13, whereby it is made possible to resharpen the cutting head 13 from the faces 23 without variation of the cutting depth.

While I have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

An apparatus for removal of corns and horny skin comprising a hand-piece adapted to be coupled with a drive shaft,

a head-piece rotatably mounted in and disposed at one end of said hand-piece,

said head-piece including a multi-edged cutting head having a plurality of cutting edges angularly spaced apart from each other,

said hand-piece having a flattened portion at its forward end,

said flattened portion including a longitudinal slot,

said head-piece rotating within the range of said longitudinal slot,

the radius of each pair of adjacent cutting edges increasing for the same amount in the direction of rotation, except between the last and the first of said cutting edges,

a first hand-piece shaft operatively connected with said cutting head for joint rotation therewith,

a first flexible shaft operatively connected with said first hand-piece shaft at the other end of said handpiece,

a second flexible shaft connected to said hand-piece,

a coupling head connected to the free end of said second flexible shaft, and

a second hand-piece shaft operatively connected to the free end of said first flexible shaft and rotatably mounted in said coupling head.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 147,959 2/ 1874 Morrison 32-38 X 1,115,337 10/1914 Rossetter l32-73.6' 2,129,843 9/ 1938 Hollmann 32-48 RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

G. E. MCNEILL, Assistant Examiner. 

